“In pure mime, the artist has to depend entirely on his body on an empty stage to create an atmosphere around him, plus the characters he depicts, to tell the story without any dialogues, music, or songs, and without any external aids like props and decorations. He has to fill the stage like a painter …
Category: Non-Fiction
Worn—A People’s History of Clothing: Sofi Thanhauser
Review by Susan T. LandryPublished by Random House and Penguin Forgive me for starting with a brief digression before I tell you about Worn by Sofi Thanhauser. There is a connection. Last summer, July 2021, I read All That She Carried by Tiya Miles, which was a literal eye-opener. She tells the story of a …
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The Middle—A Story of Love, Life & Laughter: Nayana Goradia
Published by Vitasta Publishing Nayana Goradia started her career writing short, catchy articles for newspapers. Her book is a collection of these articles—which appeared in a column called The Middle—in Indian newspapers such as The Statesman, The Times of India and The Hindustan Times. Her book also contains excerpts from Fly Me to the Moon, …
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The Favored Daughter—One Woman’s Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future: Fawzia Koofi with Nadene Ghouri
Published by Palgrave Macmillan “On the day I wrote the letter [that became chapter 1 in this book] I was warned not to travel because there had been a credible threat that the Taliban planned to kill me by planting an improvised explosive device (a roadside bomb) underneath my car. The Taliban dislike women holding …
Outlandish—Walking Europe’s Unlikely Landscapes: Nick Hunt
Published by John Murray Press “...the idea that wonder, mystery, awe, new worlds and undiscovered realms might lie a train ride away, rather than on a carbon-intensive flight to the far side of the globe, opened up possibilities for a different type of travel. What other unlikely landscapes might be lurking out there, ready to …
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This Tilting World: Colette Fellous
Translated from French by Sophie LewisPublished by Les Fugitives “[B]ut now it’s over, my novel is damaged, the world is damaged, I too am deeply wounded, something has happened here, something real, but everything can still begin, everything can begin again, I firmly believe it... “I must tell this before tomorrow, I must bear witness …
The Amur River—Between Russia and China: Colin Thubron
Published by Chatto & Windus “Across the heart of Asia, at the ancient convergence of steppe and forest, the grasslands of Mongolia move towards Siberia in a grey-green sea. ... “Somewhere deep in this hinterland rises one of the most formidable rivers on earth. It drains a basin twice the size of Pakistan, and more …
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The Measure of a Man: Sidney Poitier
Published by Simon & Schuster and Harper Collins “... I decided that I wanted to write a book about life. Just life itself. What I’ve learned by living more than seventy years of it. ... “I have no wish to play the pontificating fool, pretending that I've suddenly come up with the answers to all …
Hidden Lives—A Family Memoir: Margaret Forster
Published by Penguin This is a family memoir: by tracing the lives of her grandmother, mother and herself, Margaret Forster looks at how things have changed for working-class women in the UK. This book brings to light the hidden lives, lives often considered too unimportant to be documented. Forster’s grandmother, Margaret Ann, was born to …
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Country Driving—A Chinese Road Trip: Peter Hessler
Published by Cannongate and Harper Peter Hessler is an American journalist who speaks fluent Chinese and was The New Yorker’s correspondent in China from 2000 to 2007. While he was there, he got himself a Chinese driving licence and travelled through the country. Hessler applied for a Chinese driving licence in 2001. Acquiring the licence …
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